hAppiESt FamiLY

Is It Possible to Democratize the Family?

The witty writer who
declares that "the democratization of the family is impossible, since
the family is by nature an autocracy and ruled by the worst
disposition in it," is not without endorsers. There are also those,
more serious in intent, who claim that the family as an inherited
institution is by virtue of its inmost quality inimical to the
personal freedom of its members, and hence that the state, which is
now standardizing child-care, must undertake the practical duties
involved and leave both parents free to change marital relationship at
will before or after the birth of children and maintain their separate
bachelor or spinster freedom.